FP3: Antonelli goes fastest from Verstappen and Hadjar during final practice at Bahrain GP in Malaysia

Kimi Antonelli ended the third and final practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on top of the timesheets, the Mercedes driver setting the pace ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

After what the Silver Arrows described as one of their “toughest Fridays of the season”, the team looked to have enjoyed a much stronger start to Saturday as Antonelli worked his way down to a 1m 36.302s, putting him nearly three tenths clear of Verstappen.

It was a relatively quiet start to the session when the green light appeared at 1230 local time, with Cadillac’s Sergio Perez – one of 10 current drivers present on the grid when Formula 1 last raced at Sepang in 2017 – being the first to hit the track.

More cars started to emerge as the clock ticked down, many sporting the soft tyres for their opening runs on another day of hot and humid conditions, and Charles Leclerc – bucking the trend by using the hard compound – set an early benchmark by recording a lap of 1m 37.772.

The McLaren pair emerged on the medium tyres, with Lando Norris promptly displacing Leclerc at the top of the timesheets by going six tenths faster. Team mate Oscar Piastri slotted into second, albeit three tenths away from Norris’ time.

A red flag was thrown just before the halfway point of the session due to some debris on track, with replays showing that this had come from Ollie Bearman’s Haas. Some drivers were yet to make an appearance by this stage, including the Mercedes pair, Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

That all changed when the action resumed as a queue of cars emerged from the pit lane. Red Bull joined McLaren in opting for the medium tyres, while most remained on the soft rubber – including Antonelli, who went quickest on a 1m 36.924s.

Verstappen, meanwhile, set the fastest first sector but wound up in fourth place, the Dutchman having seemingly encountered traffic later on in his lap. Others also seemed to be facing this issue on an increasingly busy track, with Hamilton seen waving his hand after finding himself stuck behind the slower-moving Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad.

With 15 minutes left on the clock, the McLaren pair switched to the soft tyres – but Norris’ effort was not enough to lift him higher than his P3 slot, while Piastri also remained in fifth place. Aston Martin, meanwhile, caught the eye as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll moved up to 11th and 14th respectively.

Most of the field were back on the circuit as the session neared its end, and Leclerc improved to split the Mercedes cars in second place. The order rapidly evolved, however, as others crossed the line, with Antonelli going even quicker at the top while Verstappen and Hadjar slotted into second and third.

Antonelli’s impressive lap of 1m 36.302s kept him in P1 as the hour drew to a close, Verstappen being 0.278s adrift in P2 while Hadjar was half a second back in third. George Russell had a six-tenths deficit to his team mate in P4, and the Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton followed in fifth and sixth.

Norris and Piastri were seventh and eighth, with Franco Colapinto in the Alpine and Lindblad rounding out the top 10. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto just missed out in P11, ahead of Alonso, Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Esteban Ocon (Haas), Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) and Nico Hulkenberg (Audi).

Bearman placed in 17th, followed by Carlos Sainz (Williams), Stroll, Alex Albon (Williams), Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac) and Perez.

With the final practice hour complete, the attentions of the paddock will now switch to Qualifying, which is set to get underway at 1600 local time.